House Banner
House Banner is a large and powerful Vandal House located in the town of Juetenburg and inside the region called the Divine Lands. House Banner had retained its independance for generations and is known for its dedication to the Dragonoph religion and the fact that they once had at their height some four dragons. House Banner has been in a rivalry with House Karstarke since the betrayal of House Starke led House Banner to assist House Starke and this led to the deaths of their dragons. Since this time House Banner has constantly attempted to regain a dragon, and before the town was sacked they were close to aquiring a dragon egg from Pontus of whom only wanted a single item in return of which was captured by House Urnet during the sacking of Juetenburg. Jeutenburg was founded following the collapse of the land following the Downfall of Numeron, and its first inhabitents were Vandals who had crossed the Rhine during the Vandal migration. The largest power within the town quickly becameHouse Banner of whom rose to power after its founder was succesful on a dragon's dream. This led to House Banner controlling a dragon for many years, until during a period of conflict they sided with House Starke, and were pushed into that conflict. Despite their dragon and large forces they were unable to save House Starke, and to add insult House Karstarke would kill their dragon during the battle, and the two young dragons he had spawned. Since this time House Banner has constantly attempted to regain a dragon, and before the town was sacked they were close to aquiring a dragon egg from Pontus of whom only wanted a single item in return of which was captured by House Urnet during the sacking of Juetenburg. Following this Juetenburg would turn its attention westward where they joined into an alliance between themselves, Koenisburg, and Grandlen of whom remained independant but promised to aid eachother in case of conflict. This worked to protect Juetenburg for many generations and by the time of the Journey the town had some sixty thousand people and a large army to defend the town. Jeutenburg would be threatened by the Kingdom of Bolten and this would cause their alliance to go to the Kingdom of Lucerne for assistence. Despite assurances that if they attacked they would be declaring Casi Belle for the Kingdom of Lucerne the Kingdom of Bolten would sack Jeutenburg. Despite their defences and army Jeutenburg put up little fight and was sacked by the vengeful army of Bolten. As the army of Bolten moved on the town was occupied by House Karstarke of whom had an ancient vendeta with the town, and they acted brutally towards the population executing people for perceived loyalty to Lucerne. Following the retreat of the forces of Bolten the town was bypassed by the main Bolten army and was then besieged by the forces of House Lannister, House Clegane, and House Banner. The fighting continues as the Lucernians have surrounded the town and are fighting the lingering Karstarke forces who have little hope of survival. History Early History Jeutenburg was founded following the collapse of the land following the Downfall of Numeron, and its first inhabitents were Vandals who had crossed the Rhine during the Vandal migration. The largest power within the town quickly becameHouse Banner of whom rose to power after its founder was succesful on a dragon's dream. This led to House Banner controlling a dragon for many years, until during a period of conflict they sided with House Starke, and were pushed into that conflict. Despite their dragon and large forces they were unable to save House Starke, and to add insult House Karstarke would kill their dragon during the battle, and the two young dragons he had spawned. Since this time House Banner has constantly attempted to regain a dragon, and before the town was sacked they were close to aquiring a dragon egg from Pontus of whom only wanted a single item in return of which was captured by House Urnet during the sacking of Juetenburg. Following this Juetenburg would turn its attention westward where they joined into an alliance between themselves, Koenisburg, and Grandlen of whom remained independant but promised to aid eachother in case of conflict. This worked to protect Juetenburg for many generations and by the time of the Journey the town had some sixty thousand people and a large army to defend the town. The Divine Lands Main Article : The Divine Lands Following the meeting of the Kingdom of Lucerne, and Lorderon it became clear through those talks, and the talks with the Riverlands, Seagard and others that the Kingdom of Bolten was an extremely menecing actor in the field of Westros. Along the westernside of Westros sat the independant land called the Divine Lands. The Divine Lands had an alliance amongst eachother to defend eachother if things ever came to fighting, and this had allowed them to escape the clutches of larger Kingdoms like Bolten, and the Freys. Communication begin with the Divine Lands after Nicoli Machiavelli would communicate with the leadership of the three city states and from insiders he had planted in the area learned the ways he believed he could get them to the Lucerne side of things. Grandlen Firstly he sent promices of large arms trade agreements with the largest of the towns in the form of Grandlen of which created a strong bond between the two. On top of this he would offer hands in marriage to his eldest daughter in Allenia Grandlen of whom was approaching twenty three but the prospects in Grandlen were not what he was looking for. Lord Grandlen was very much interested in having a large meeting of the Divine Lands, and said that if the Lucernians could put it together he would be a staunch supporter of theirs during the meeting. Jeutenburg and Ventin Jeutenburg would be substancially easier to placate as they mainly just wanted protection, and this was dealt with when William Lovie sent a letter to House Banner telling them that the Kingdom of Lucerne would intervene on any conflict which involved Jeutenburg. Nikolas Banner would arrive at Koenisburg after the third letter between he and Lucerne and would be prepared to be very positive towards the Lucernians during the meeting. Alongside Jeutenburg the mercentile city state of Ventin would be contacted as well, and they basically only wanted assurances of assistence in the case that the Frey's attempted to block their trade routes. If the Frey's could not be reasoned with then increased southern trade was their main option thus making them send five members of the Trade Union Guilds to Koenisburg for the meeting. Koenisburg Last to get within the fold was Koenisburg of whom was perhaps the most important of the city states as the long term goal of Koenisburg was to act a major port nearbye The Trident which would alert Lucerne to any problems. Koenisburg was led not by a house as the other states were and instead was a hyper theocracy led by the Voices of the Dragon of whom are led theoretically by the Voice of the Dragon. Communicating with this voice they discovered the voice was Britt Lancave of whom had won prestige in Lucerne during the Nortburg Tournament of 5120. After determing from the council that they would like to be aligned with Lucerne if for no other reason then to make the Frey's less willing to threaten them she would go about making the best deal possible. After negotiations of shipping lanes, and trade was over she knew the deal was signed and simply wanted one more thing. Britt Lancave wanted only one thing in order to pull her to their side and that was for them to send a Martell that she could swear an oath before. This was an easy task and they sent Obella Martell of whom wanted any excuse to travel eastward and see her fiance Robb Starke. The Meeting The meeting would finally take place following the return of William Lovie III. and his family from their time in Lorderon the second time. Nicholi, and Hedrik Clegane would not return to Lucerne with the rest of the group and instead would meet Obella and Robb Starke in Koenisburg for the meeting. All the parties would arrive for the meeting except Teonisburg of whom obeyed the command of Koenisburg and saw no reason to send more representatives. The meeting would become somewhat interesting when several Frey's made dock in Koenisburg and attempted to join the meeting. Finding Robb Starke inside there was nearly a fight inside the hallway and Robb Starke would leave the hall in order to not make more of an issue then there already was. The meeting would continue and Obella Martell took the oaths of Koenisburg while the others signed papers of alliance with Lucerne thus sealing the Divine Lands as a Lucernian alligned area. The night came and as the Frey's prepared to leave Robb Starke once more attempted to make things better but instead of this he ended up insulting them more when Obella came out, and seeing she was his fiance by the way she clung to him the Freys were further insulted and left more angry and with more ammunition. I watched from my window as Robb Starke walked out of the tower and into the street. I wondered what he was doing until I saw the weasely Frey he was walking towards. I could hear that Britt was still talking but despite the loveliness of her conversation I couldn't let Robb get into a duel in the streets. The last thing we needed was a fight with the Frey's at a time like this. "I'm sorry my Lady but I must take your leave for a time my friend is in for some trouble outside." "Trouble amongst the children of Glaurung on the streets of his city is city isn't something I can ignore. I shall accompany you." Lady Lancave followed closely behind me as we exited the room. "Alright my Lady but we must hurry." We made our way down the steps and into the street to find the Frey man with a sword pointed at the direction of Obella Martell of whom was being shielded by Robb who had his hand on his own sword. Three of the Frey's men stood behind him hands on their swords, while more then ten Martell, and Starke men stood around behind Robb. Reaching them I finally could hear their words. "At some point this must end Frey." Robb held his hands out peacefully and you hoped the Frey would accept this, but he spit at Robbs hands before speaking. It was dark but I knew this Frey to be Hosteen Frey one of the endless sons of Walder Frey. Hosteen is a husky man with a square face, and despite his size he wasn't fate just very large. When we were told of the Freys that had arrived they had made a special point to say that he is very much comparable to a bull, slow to anger but implacable when aroused. "This could have been so much different wolf, but you chose that whore over a true lady." He looked at Obella with such discust that her cousin Obara nearly charged forward until I saw Britt move infront of her stopping her dead in her tracks. Alongside his anger it was apparent that Hosteen is either dim and stupid, or arrogant and foolish. "And I am sorry that this has offended your family but you can either accept my apology or you won't." The slight was so small that it seemed almost insane that someone would still be angry over it. These Frey's held a grudge over what I had heard was the fact that a few men laughed at them. "We will not." "I am sorry Ser Hosteen but you are causing undue problems for the City of the Dragon, and I must ask that you leave." She stood strong, and I gained even more respect for Britt then I already had as she stood in the middle of two very angry groups barely looking like she was afraid at all. "The rivers will run red with your blood wolf." He turned and walked back before turning one last time and looking at Robb. "Trust me when I say that. You'll one day be surrounded by death and wonder how it could have all gone so wrong." With that he left and Robb turned towards Obella of whom held onto him tighter then her strength should have allowed her to. Sack of Juetenburg Main Article : First Bolten-Lucerne War :'' "The Kingdom of Bolten was the first time we were ever met agressively by an oponent, and at first we were shocked at their actions. I determined quickly that they had to be stopped at any cost, and this led to our promise to defend our two major allies in the region, and a massive influx of our troops into the region."'' :-William Lovie III. With the taking of Westbrige the region of Bolten became more interested in its own growth and in particular they really wanted to get the Lucernian army involved in pitch battles which they had the numbers to survive. In order to do this they begin threatening several allies of Lucerne in western Westros in the form of Koenisburg, and the town of Jeutenburg. While these threats rancheted up the Kingdom of Lucerne did exactly what the Boltens hoped they would do when they brought huge forces to bear on the defences of the Westros river crossing of Levin. The Lucernians also made it known that any action taken against their allies in Koenisburg, or Jeutenburg would be deemed a decleration of war against Lucerne itself. This promice to defend meant a lot to the two towns, and most believed that with that the conflict would be ended before any blood was spilled. This idea changed quickly when the Kingdom of Bolten sacked Jeutenburg in a massive siege that took place in the guise of a peace mission. The envoys sent in by the Boltens were not actually meant for a peaceful mission but instead once they got inside the walls they showed hidden weapons and overpowered the outnumbered gaurds they had before occupying the gatehouse. With the gatehouse in their control they filled into the city overwhelming every point of resistence with their vastly superior numbers. :'' "Jeutenburg was still on fire as the army of the Boltens moved towards the city of Koenisburg, and if not for our earlier speed it would have been the white marble of Koenisburg burning next."'' :-Jon Snow Jeutenburg was given very little quarter with nearly half the city killed, and the survivors forced to live under the occupation of House Urnet, and House Karstarke of whom House Urnet spent their time ransacking the city of its ancient wealth and history. As House Urnet it was the vengeance of House Karstarke that was taken out on the town as they executed many of the town for percieved loyalty to Lucerne. As the army of Bolten did this their was devision as the forces under the command of Domeric Bolten, and House Hornwood would protect several areas within the city, and were the main reason the entire city wasn't massacred. With conflict between this force, and the more chaotic forces of Ramsey Bolten looking likely a raven arrived from Roose Bolten who tasked them with quickly moving towards Koenisburg before the Lucernians could react. Following this the army of the Boltens moved very quickly to camp itself outside the walls of Koenisburg thereby threatening the survival of the city for the first time in its history. Back inside Jeutenburg the situation was completely different as the violence raised uncontrolled, and spiralled nearly out of control when Nikolas Banner and many of his family were taken prisoner by Daryn Hornwood. Rebellion : "They moved like rats throughout the underbrush. Hiding in the shadows they picked us off in the darkness, and we were forced to retreat further and further into fortified areas. As we did this they hit our supplies and we found ourselves being besieged in a town we were occupying." : -Harrion Karstarke Otto Dragoon now left inside the burning city of Jeutenburg would mobilize the remaining military of the city into freeing the prisoners of the Bolten occupiers and this moved with such speed and ferocity that the Boltens didn't know it was happening at first. As they hid themselves amongst the citizens of Jeutenburg the outnumbered forces of House Urnet, and House Karstarke found themselves forced to retreat into towers, and smaller keeps throughout the town. As this happened the rebels would begin to attack the convoys that were entering the city to feed the garrisoning troops. These attacks were devesating to the point that several surrounded Bolten strong points surrendered themselves to rebels they couldn't see rather then starve to death. The rebels would be dealt a blow when Otto Dragoon was killed while attacking the palace of Jeutenburg. Following this attack the actual family members of House Urnet would begin to retreat from the city with only Yendry, and Intip Urnet remaining alongside Harrion Karstarke inside the city. Retaking of Juetenburg Following the retreat of the forces of Bolten the town was bypassed by the main Bolten army and was then besieged by the forces of House Lannister, House Clegane, and House Banner. The fighting continues as the Lucernians have surrounded the town and are fighting the lingering Karstarke forces who have little hope of survival. Noteable Members Family Members * † Fedor Banner. Died of Old Age ** † Sommer Banner. Died during the sacking of Jeutenburg ***Nikolas Banner **** † Adala Banner. Died during the sacking of Juetenburg *****Erma Banner *****Corina Banner ***** † Minnie Banner. Died during the sacking of Juetenburg *****Theo Banner ***** † Arthur Banner. Died during the sacking of Juetenburg ***Klara Banner **** † Otto Dragoon. Died during the sacking of Juetenburg *****Gerlinde Banner ***** † Kaspar Banner. Died during the sacking of Juetenburg Other Noteables Vassal Houses Category:Houses in Europe Category:Houses in Lucerne Category:Houses in Westros Category:Vandals Category:Vandal House in Lucerne